


you're the feeling i get when i'm feeling fine

by actualbluesargent



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, Gen, The whole gang is here, gratuitous pop culture references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 20:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17649683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actualbluesargent/pseuds/actualbluesargent
Summary: Wally West was Artemis' best friend before she had to leave their high school. She never expected to run into him again, least of all in college.Now that they've found each other again, there's something new between them that she just can't shake.





	you're the feeling i get when i'm feeling fine

**Author's Note:**

> i've been living a yj lifestyle for these past few weeks and it's been peak missing spitfire hours so here you go.
> 
> this one goes out to the folks in the yj discord. some scenes in this are direct consequences of shit they've said.

Artemis is a pro at moving by now. So you would think that she would at least be over the first day jitters.

From her childhood moving state to state as her parents chased jobs to her mom deciding she needed to move to Gotham Academy to keep her on the straight and narrow.,Artemis has been to more new schools than she can count. So it makes no sense that when she pulls up to Stanford University she has a rock in her stomach. She’s in Will’s pick-up truck, and the red exterior feels like it’s encasing her in a bubble, separate from the world outside her. Out there, students are unpacking boxes and moving into dorm rooms, ready to pick up life where they left it in June. In here, in the safety of her brother-in-law’s pick-up, she’s not new (again). She doesn’t have to begin her college experience all over again. She’s the same as she was all summer.

“You’ve done this before,” Will reminds her from the driver’s seat. Artemis groans, because that’s the problem. “This was your first choice, remember? You’re excited to transfer here. You’re going to double major in Human Biology and Comparative Literature, and you’re going to kick ass.”

She rolls her eyes at him, but opens the door and swings out of the car.

Once they start moving her stuff into her dorm, she relaxes more into the rhythm of the whole thing. Around her, other freshman and sophomores are heaving their boxes and suitcases to their rooms, and Artemis just feels one with the surge. It takes what feels like a year, but they do eventually move her in successfully.

“It’s weird seeing the room only half-full,” Will comments, leaning against her door frame.

“Or half-empty,” Artemis says. “Yeah, my roommate emailed and said she’s not going to be arriving until tomorrow. Something with her uncle.”

“I bet she doesn’t have a super wonderful older brother to help her move in,” he says, hooking an arm around her neck. She tries to duck out from under his grip, but she can’t stop him from ruffling her hair with his other hand.

“You’re not even my actual brother!” she laughs when she finally gets free.

He waves a hand. “Technicality.”

She’s about to respond when a voice calls out from behind her.

“Holy shit, _Artemis?”_

The voice is familiar. Very familiar. Artemis thinks of hours spent in a biology lab, peering over a frog, of evenings standing at the sidelines of track meets, yelling herself horse of days spent on the couch, playing video games, jostling, bad-mouthing. She turns around, and there he is; a shock of red hair, freckles covering his face. He’s taller, obviously, than he was at sixteen, broader too. His jaw seems squarer and his eyes surer, and he’s looking at her with a slightly open mouth, like he was in the middle of saying something and got distracted.

“Wally?” she says, and as she does his look of surprise grows into a lopsided smile, and her heart leaps.

“As I live and breathe,” Wally says, a laugh escaping him. “Hey,”

“Hey,” she says, more breath than a word. “What are you doing here?”

“Here, at Stanford?” Wally makes a big show of looking around the hall and down at himself. “I go here. Sophomore. I should be asking you!”

“I transferred,” she says, unable to hide her smile. “I’m a sophomore, too.”

Wally’s smile is bright and blinding. “That’s amazing!”

“Yeah, I’m pretty pumped,”

“Oh, did you know we have an archery team?” Wally asks. Artemis’ eyebrows shoot up.

“You’re kidding?”

“You’re saying you came to Stanford, and didn’t even check?”

“Yeah, well I was a bit preoccupied with, y’know, the Stanford bit!”

“Sure, sure,” Wally says, his voice teasing, his eyes amused.

“Uh, Artemis?” Will says, and Artemis honestly forgot that he was there.

“Oh, sorry,” she says, turning to the redhead in the doorway and not the one down the hallway. “Will, this is Wally. We were friends back when I went to Central City. Wally, this is Will, my - ”

“Older brother,” Will says, stepping forward to shake Wally’s hand. Wally shakes it, but looks to Artemis with wary eyes.

“Jeez, Artemis, I would have thought that all the time I knew you, you would have mentioned the older brother,” Wally says, eyeing Will. “Crusher hide him from you?”

Artemis laughs despite herself. “Not exactly. It’s… complicated.”

Wally looks at her with something like knowing. “Isn’t it always?”

Unsure of where to look, Artemis turns to Will, who mouths ‘Crusher?’

“Hey, you know who you look like?” Wally says, calling attention back to him. Then, immediately, “You know what. Nevermind. Artemis, I gotta go meet a friend, but we should catch up, seriously. I mean it. I’m just already late,”

“Busy day?” she asks, and Wally flashes her a grin.

“Busy life!” he says, jogging away.

“Wally from high school, huh?” Will says, and Artemis just elbows him.

-

When Will leaves, a panic settles in her stomach for a few moments. She breathes out, then in. She’s done this before. She looks around her half-empty room. She can work on a social life tomorrow, when Megan (Morse! Drama major!) moves in. Her bed, with the green bedspread, and Netflix, with new movies added, are beckoning her when she hears a rap against the door. At first she figures it’s Will, having forgotten something. But then she pulls the door open and sees Wally, standing a few steps back. His hands are shoved in his back pockets, the set of his shoulders loose, all casual.

“Me and some of the guys are heading to this party off campus. Dick said I could bring whoever so - ” he clears his throat. “You wanna come?”

She glances back in her room, half-empty and cozy.

“Come on,” he says, grinning. “It’s your first night, there’s no way you’ve made cooler plans.”

Artemis considers him for a second. “Do I need to change?”

“Nope! You look great, and we’re going,” Wally says, herding her out of her room at max speed.

If she’s honest with herself, she’ll admit that when Wally said they should catch up, she didn’t think they actually would. Much less that day. Not that she didn’t think he _meant it_ but - this is Wally. Fast paced, sometimes forgetful, a little self-centred. She figured he’d get caught up in his back to college flurry and that would be that.

She should have known better, of course. This is _Wally._

“Your friend’s name is really Dick?” she asks as they walk down the corridor.

“Bold statement coming from someone called _Artemis,”_ Wally says, which - okay, fair.

“Is this just your way of showing me how much cooler you are than me now?”  
Wally bats her shoulder. “Please. I’ve always been cooler than you.”

Artemis raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, there’s no way that’s true.”

Wally bumps her - not too lightly - with his shoulder. “You don’t have to come to this if you’re just going to talk shit the whole time.”

“But what else would I do?”

Wally laughs, and she feels a spike of delight. She knows from experience that Wally’s are plentiful and given freely, but she still feels like she’s won something whens he gets one out of him.

“So, who are ‘the guys’?” she asks. It’s evening, but it being September, in _California,_ it barely feels cool as they step outside. The sun is starting to set, the light blue sky bleeding into pink at the edges of her vision.

“Huh?”

“You said you and the guys, quote unquote, were going to this. Who are the guys?”

“Oh, just some other sports guys. Kal is giving us a ride, because he doesn’t drink and is DD-supreme. Conner’s probably coming too, ‘cause his girlfriend isn’t in until tomorrow and Kal won’t let him mope around the dorm. And it’s Dick’s place, of course.”

“Right,” Artemis says, then, “Sports guys? What, you take up baseball?”

“What? No, I run track.”

“Hm,” Artemis says, looking at him for a second. “Makes sense.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing! It just makes sense!”

Wally side-eyes her, and then nudges her with his elbow. “There’s Kal’s car.”

He points to an unassuming Toyota, before wasting no time in opening the back door and clambering in. Artemis freezes for a second before following him in.

“Kal, Conner, this is Artemis,” Wally says, gesturing to her. “Artemis, Conner and Kal.”

Kal and Conner are like opposite sides of the ‘tall, dark and handsome’ coin. Kal has sharp cheekbones and close-cropped blond hair, and Conner has dark hair and piercing blue eyes.

“Nice to meet you,” Kal says from the driver’s seat.

“Hey,” Conner says, voice low and gravelly. Shit, does Wally only hang out with hot people?

She gives a small wave. “Hey,”

Wally bangs his fists on the back of Kal’s headrest, signalling, apparently, that it’s time to go. In what feels like record time, Kal has them out of their parking space and on the road.

“So Artemis,” Kal says, making eye contact with her in the rearview mirror. “Wally says you went to high school together?”

“Uh, yeah, up until the end of sophomore year when I had to move,” Artemis says.

“‘Move’? She got a scholarship to Gotham Academy,” Wally says.

“Impressive,” Kal says, and Artemis looks down.

“And Wally said you just transferred here?” Conner asks her, a little stilted, like he was reading politeness cue cards someone had given him. Artemis glances over at Wally. How much did he tell his friends about her?

“Yeah, I didn’t get in straight out of high school, but I was able to transfer based on my grades in Central City,” she says. Conner nods.

“Overachiever,” Wally says.

“Shut up, West,” she says. “Like you’re one to talk.”

In the years since she last saw him, she thought that maybe Wally West would have matured a little bit. He demonstrates how much by flipping her the bird.

It’s something. Back in high school, he would have stuck his tongue out at her.

-

Dick Grayson is somehow everything Artemis expected him to be and nothing at all. With a name like Dick, she had been summoning images of some prep school asshole whose trust fund paid for the house he decided to spend his college years in. She follows Wally, Conner and Kal into the house, and at first glance, with locks of black hair falling in front of blue eyes and a jaw that looks like he’s going to ask you to vote for him in his run for senate, she thinks she’s right.

“Dick!” Wally says.

“Wally fucking West!”

Dick Grayson is seated on a countertop, from which he jumps down to pull Wally into one of those complicated hug/hand-shake/shoulder-slap thing that guys do.

“It’s good to see you, Dick,” Kal says, once he has released Wally.

“Grayson,” Conner grunts, but he smiles while he does it.

“I’m glad you guys could make it,” Dick says. There’s something so genuine in the way he says it that Artemis actually rethinks her initial impression.

“Artemis, this is Dick,” Wally says, gesturing towards her. She waves. Again. What’s with the waving today?

“A pleasure,” Dick says, tapping two fingers to his temple in mock-salute. “Welcome to Stanford.”

“Um,” Artemis says. “Thanks?”

“Can I get you guys some drinks?” Dick asks.

“Sure,” Conner says, which it appears Dick takes as an answer for all of them. He disappears into the kitchen, and comes back holding three beers and a Coke. He hands the Coke to Kal wordlessly. Guess Kal _is_ DD-supreme.

“So, you went to high school with Wally?” Dick asks Artemis as he hands her her beer. Jesus, is that the question of the night?

“Yeah,” she says. “You know, he used to call himself the Wall-man back in high school.”

To her delight, Wally nearly _chokes_ on his shitty beer.

“The _Wall-man?_ ” Dick repeats, looking at Wally with a sharp grin.

“Please, that was so long ago,” Wally says, blush creeping up his cheeks.

“I always imagined Wally to be cringey in high school, but I never would have come up with Wall-man.” Dick says.

“Young Wally had a gift for embarrassing himself,” she says. Wally closes his eyes and leans his head back, like he’s bracing for impact. It’s almost endearing. “In sophomore year he had a several step plan to seduce one of the cheerleaders, without realising that she _had a girlfriend.”_

“Not my proudest moment,” Wally admits, eyes still closed.

“Regret inviting your friend yet, West?” Conner says.

“Oh, I haven’t even gotten started,” Artemis says.

Dick raises his drink at her. “I think I’m going to like you.”

Luckily for Wally, she doesn’t actually spend that long regaling his college friends with stories of his high school exploits. She’s not that horrible.

She gets pulled into a conversation with some guys who are playing darts (terribly), which means she loses sight of the guys. Before she can start feeling despondent, a girl with red hair in a wheelchair waves her over.

“Artemis, right?” she says when Artemis reaches her. “Wally’s friend!”

“That’s me,” she says. “Artemis Wally’s Friend. Full name and title.”

The girl laughs. “Sorry, that was probably kind of weird. It’s just that Dick was making such a big deal out of him bringing someone that Dick didn’t know. I’m Barbara, by the way. Dick’s girlfriend,”

“Nice to meet you, Barbara Dick’s Girlfriend.”

Barbara laughs, and something about it makes Artemis like her straight away.

It turns out Barbara is like, a genius, in Stanford on a scholarship. She tells Artemis that she’s a comp sci major, but met Dick in a criminology class she took the year before.

“He was such a smartass, I think he was glad to have someone who could take him down a peg.”

She introduces Artemis to Raquel, who is immediately the most no-nonsense girl Artemis has ever met. The two of them rope Artemis into a game of kings, for which they seem to have invented their own complex rules.

“If you swear, you have to take a drink, and keep your head on the table for three rounds,” Barbara explains. Artemis pretends to follow.

She excuses herself from the game before long, because she can see a graph in her head where she just gets drunker and drunker which - any other night would be fine, but she doesn’t want that to be her first impression.

Besides, there’s darts to play.

“Artemis!”

She turns, and Wally’s making his way through the somewhat busy living room toward her. “There you are!” he says. Which is weird, considering he’s the one who brought her here in the first place, but she’s been busy kicking everyone’s ass at darts. Also, side note, what college student has darts in their _house?_ Is that allowed?

“Here I am,” she says, raising her voice to be heard over the music playing. “What’s up?”

Wally looks over his shoulder, and Artemis gets flashbacks to very high school-era dare scenarios.

“Can I ask a sorta weird question?” he says, which, coupled with the guys a few feet away ten seconds away from a brawl, is definitely straight out of her high school nightmares.

“Go ahead,”

“So, Will.”

She blinks. That’s not what she was expecting. “Yeah, Will. What about him?”

“He’s not actually your brother, right? ‘Cause, I know it’s been awhile, but I’m pretty sure you never had a brother. Especially one that looks like - ” a clatter cuts him off, and Artemis looks over and sees the guys who had been on the verge of a fight colliding. Someone herds them outside, where they can damage less expensive furniture. Seriously, who is Dick if this is how he’s decorating his _college house?_

With the drama reaching that anti-climax, she decides to answer Wally. “Yeah, like I said, it’s complicated. He’s, uh, sorta like my brother-in-law?”

Wally’s eyebrows shoot up. “Jade got married?”

“There’s the sort of part. More like, Jade mothered a child and then split, leaving Will and my mom with Lian.”

Wally winces.

“Yeah, not pretty. Why do you ask?”

“Well I was hoping that your story would make this a little less confusing but…” Wally turns around, grabbing some redhead mid conversation. “Artemis, this is Roy Harper.”

She looks at the redhead and sees a twenty-year-old Will. Which makes no sense, because she knows that Will is both twenty-three and on his way home. She looks from young Will to Wally and back again.

“Harper?” she says, finally.

“Yeah, Roy Harper,” not-Will says. “What about it?”

His hair is shaved close to his head, but other than that, it’s like she’s talking to her brother-in-law.

“You… you don’t know a Will Harper, do you?” she asks, barely making eye contact. Whoever this Harper is, he carries a kind of tension in his shoulders that reminds Artemis of her sister.

Not-Will; Roy, raises an eyebrow at her. “Yeah, he’s my older brother. You know him?”

“Uh, yeah,” Artemis says. “I’m, uh, Jade’s sister?”

“Ah,” Roy says. “The wife.”

“Sorta,” Artemis says.

Roy smirks, then nods. “So we share a niece,”

Artemis lets out a huff of laughter. “I guess we do,”

And with that, he excuses himself from the conversation.

“Well, that was weirdly anti-climactic,” Wally says as Roy takes his drink and walks away.

“For you, maybe. I didn’t even know Will had a brother. He was adopted, I figured he was an only child.”

“A man of many secrets,” Wally says. “Perfect for Jade,”

Artemis snorts. “You’re telling me.”

Wally pauses for a moment, then says, “It’s good you came, Artemis,”

“Don’t get sappy on me, West,” Artemis says, looking away from him. “C’mon, let me kick your ass at beer pong.”

-

Wally’s friends were nice, and everything, but she doesn’t expect to see them a whole lot more often. Wally made her give him her number, and Barbara added her on Facebook, but Artemis knows how college kids are. Busy, with their own lives bustling around. There are over fifteen thousand students at Stanford, she doesn’t think she’ll just run into them.

Then, Kal is in her on of her biology classes. She spots him when she’s scanning the lecture hall for seats. Kal is seated a bit too close to the front for her personal tastes, but she’ll take acquaintances over comfort.

“Kal,” she says as she approaches. “Hey.”

“Artemis!” he says, like he’s genuinely glad to see her. “I didn’t know you were in this class.”

“Well, here I am,” she says.

“How are you?” he asks, but before she can answer, the professor starts the class. She’s the kind of professor Artemis likes, moving through the material at a fast enough pace that she isn’t bored, but explaining the material well enough that Artemis doesn’t feel in over her head. Despite everything WIll said, one of her biggest fears in coming to Stanford was that she’d be in over her head.

The class is over before Artemis expects, and Kal taps her shoulder to get her attention.

“Come, join me for lunch!” he says. “I’m meeting with Wally and Roy.”

“Uh, sure,” she says, for lack of anything else to do.

“What are you doing this weekend?” Kal asks her as they’re walking towards the food court. Some old instinct in her, programmed from years of unwelcome advances from guys, tells her to Lie or Run, but she answers truthfully.

“Nothing yet,”

“Well, Wally has his first track meet on Saturday, if you want to come. We all like to go to each other’s events when we can,”

“That’s so sweet,” Artemis says automatically. “You don’t run track?”

“No,” Kal says. “I’m on the swim team. Conner plays football, but he doesn’t like us to come to his games. Says it takes his mind off the sport.”

“Huh,” Artemis mutters. They arrive in the food court, and Kal steers her to a table where Wally and Roy are already seated.

“Artemis!” Wally says, all surprise.

“Hey, Wall-man,” she says, biting her lip on a grin when he bristles.

“Artemis and I are in the same biology class,” Kal explains as he sits down.

“So here you are,” Roy says. Even with the shaved hair, it’s unsettling how similar to Will he looks. He must notice Artemis staring at him, because he proceeds to say, “Can I help you?”

“I just can’t believe Will never told me he had a brother,” she admits.

“Two,” Roy says. “We have an older brother, Jim, as well,”

“ _Another one?!”_

But before she can wrangle any answers out of Roy, they’re joined by Conner and - Megan, Artemis’ roommate.

“Artemis! Hi!” Megan says, sitting next to her.

“You know each other?” Conner asks.

“Yeah,” Artemis says. “We’re roommates,”

“How about that for a coincidence,” Wally says, though Artemis can barely understand him through his full mouth.

“Swallow before you talk, West,” she says, kicking him in the shins. He shoots her a look she has no trouble interpreting as “Suck it, Crock,” and she laughs.

Megan looks between the two of them. “So, how do you guys know Artemis?”

“We went to high school together,” Wally says, mouth _still full._ Artemis aims another kick at his shins, but he must have learned his lesson because her foot only connects with air. He scrunches his nose at her in victory, and she performs a very dainty gesture with her middle finger.

-

“How did you guys meet?” Artemis asks Kal once they’ve eaten. She’s nursing a shitty latte, and Wally is _still eating._

“It was a GSA meeting, I think,” Kal says.

“Yeah,” Wally laughs. “That was a total shitshow,”

“Oh?” Artemis says.

“Unfortunately,” Kal says. “Heavy on the S, not so much G.”

“Forget any other kinds of acronyms,” Wally says. “Mostly a bunch of straight people trying to make themselves feel ‘woke’, or whatever.”

“Which you’re not,” Artemis says. It comes out a little blunt, but she’s trying to figure the situation out. Not to stereotype, but she remembers how girl-crazy Wally was in high school. He had been the kind of guy to lean heavy into no-homo rhetoric, so that news comes as - well, news to Artemis.

“Yeah,” Wally says. “Bisexual,”

Artemis feels something warm spread through her bones. “Me too.”

“Not to brag,” Roy says. “But he figured it out because he got a crush on me,”

Wally leans over the table to flick him in the forehead. “You wish, Harper,”

Roy just laughs, and Artemis can’t help wonder if Wally’s reaction didn’t actually help his case. Roy goes on to continue to tease Wally, and she smiles. It’s not that she wouldn’t have felt as close to Wally, her rediscovered childhood friend if he hadn’t been bi, of course not. But knowing he is means she has a warm sense of kinship with him, like she has with so many other people she meets who are bi.

“Seriously, Artemis, you should come to Wally’s track meet with us on Saturday. We always go to support him,” Kal says.

“If by support you mean heckle,” Wally grumbles.

“I’ll be there,” she promises.

-

And just like that, Artemis has a friend group.

“I can’t believe you’ve been away from my influence for less than a month and you’ve befriend a gang of jocks,” Zatanna says when she tells her. “It’s like I never taught you anything.”

“Not everyone I meet can be as cool as you, Zee,” she says. “Besides, it’s nice to have stuff to do all the time.”

And it is all the time. She goes to Kal’s swim meets, Wally’s track events. She goes shopping with Megan and to the movies with Barbara. She loses (barely!) to Conner in arm-wrestling, and she even hangs out with Roy and Dick. They all watch movies together, and eat lunch when they can. They all just adopt her into their group dynamic, with no questions asked, and everyday Artemis is thankful Wally spotted her in the hallway.

“As long as you don’t forget who your real best friend is,” Zatanna says, and Artemis laughs.

“Never.”

-

“You don’t have to drive me,” Artemis tells Wally as she gets into his passenger seat.

“Please,” Wally says. “What are friends for? Am I going to let you get the bus to archery try-outs?”

“It’s not even try-outs,” she says. “Will’s dad is like, an alumnus of the archery team and got them to agree to let me show them what I’ve got,”

“Which is gonna blow them away!” he says.

“You don’t know that,” Artemis reminds him.

“No way,” Wally says. “You were way too cocky in high school to not be kick-ass at archery in college. That’s against the law.”

She laughs, and Wally grins, like that was the point. When they get there, before Artemis gets out of the car, Wally touches her shoulder to get her attention. He looks her straight in the eyes, and she feels her nerves go still.

“You’re gonna be great,” he says, and she believes him. “Now, get out of my car.”

The Stanford archery team are all the same kind of tall and intimidating. They stand with crazy good posture, and regard Artemis with a cool interest. If she hadn’t been taught everything she knows by the most terrifying men she’s ever known (which, yeah, kind of includes Will), she would be psyched out. As it is, something calm settles in her bones. She takes up her bow, and waits for their signal.

“Alright,” the captain says. “Show us what you’ve got.”

And she does.

Wally’s waiting outside his car for her when she comes out. His eyes rove over her as she walks towards him, trying to guess how it all went.

“Well?” he asks.

“I kicked ass!” she announces. Wally laughs, bright and happy. He steps forward and wraps her up in his arms, pressing her against his chest. At first Artemis is thrown by the sudden contact, but she reciprocates, squeezing Wally tight. That seems to shock him out of whatever state he was in, and he pulls back.

“Um,” he says, clearing his throat. “Good job.”

-

Artemis is woken up by Wally West’s voice.

“Artemis, get up! C’mon, we’re gonna be late for Kal’s swim thing,”

“Wally?” she murmurs, peering at him with one eye open. “How did you get in here?”

“Got the key off Megan. Seriously, get up!”

She flings her arm in front of her face. “Five more minutes,”

“We don’t have five minutes!” Wally says, shaking her. “We have to go now!”

Grumpily, she rolls out of bed. She stands facing him, and rubs at her eyes. “What time is it?”

“Nine a.m.!”

“On a Saturday?”

“Swim meets wait for no man. C’mon, get dressed.”

“Fine,” she mumbles. “Turn around. Does it matter what I wear?”

“You could wear a sack and Kal would still just be happy you showed up.”

Wally’s back safely facing her, she tugs off her pyjama shirt and gets a sports bra on. She changes out of her shorts and pulls on a pair of jeans.

“Okay, you can turn around again,” she says, not really paying attention to him as she roots through her drawer to find a shirt. She elects to go for one of Will’s old shirts she took with her. When she turns to face Wally again, his eyes are fixed firmly on the ground, with blotches of pink patching his neck, ears bright red.

“You good?” she asks, and he splutters.

“Yeah, yeah, fine. Let’s, uh, let’s go!”

“Wait a second. Is that… tie dye?” she says, eyeing his shirt. It’s decorated in swirls of neon green, yellow and muddy red. It hurts to look at. Maybe Zatanna has finally rubbed off on her.

Wally at least has the decency to look embarrassed.

“This fashion item? Yeah,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Kal thought it would be a good… bonding exercise.”

“He thought that making tie dye shirts would be a good bonding exercise for a group of jocks?”

And just like that, there’s colour creeping up his neck again.

“It didn’t all go as planned,” he admits. Artemis can only raise an eyebrow. “You should see the others.”

“Wally, I really don’t know how they could be worse than yours,”

“How dare you! I look great in this shirt.” he turns, as if to strut away, indignant. She bites the inside of her cheek. He opens her door. “Anyway, I promised I’d wear it to support him. So come _on.”_

-

To celebrate Kal’s win, Dick announces a movie and booze night in his place. Wally lets her ride shotgun while Roy, Kal and Raquel squish in the back.

“Favouritism,” Roy mutters. Artemis doesn’t dignify it with a response.

It’s not a long trip to Dick’s, but when they pull up it’s clear that they’re the last to arrive. They clamber out of the car and start towards the front door. Artemis spots her shoe is untied, and crouches down to fix it. When she pops back up, she spots Kal leaning beside the car, smiling at his phone.

“Kal?” she says, and he jumps. “You good?”

“Yes,” he says, after a slight delay. “Very good,”

“Alright,” she says. “Well done today.”

“Thank you,” he says, and she follows him into Dick’s.

Or, she almost does.

“Artemis, I forgot some bags in the car, do you mind grabbing them?” Dick says, tossing his keys towards her. She catches them in one hand, which Dick seems to take as a ‘yes’.

She comes back with bags laden with chips, and sees everyone has settled into various spots throughout the room. The only spot left is between Wally and Megan - and there isn’t a lot of room there.

“Thanks, Artemis,” Dick says. “Take a seat, the movie’s starting.”

There’s a dare in his eyes, so she squeezes between Wally and Megan with no questions asked. Megan’s legs are thrown over Conner’s lap, the picture of an adorable couple. Artemis crosses her legs, and pointedly does not look at Dick for the entirety of the movie.

She nurses her beer for most of it, because getting up to retrieve another would involve dislodging herself from the couch, which seems more effort than a beer is worth. It comes to her that her early start is catching up to her when she yawns so loud that the others all shoot her looks. Maybe she could just close her eyes for a second.

“Artemis!” hisses a voice. She blinks her eyes open, and finds herself lying against a firm chest. She looks around, and sees that the movie is long over, and many of her friends have left. The lack of warmth at her side tells her that Megan and Conner are gone. There’s an arm around her, keeping her pinned in place. Her hand is clutching at a splotchy red shirt, which looks vaguely familiar. Then it hits her.

She fell asleep on Wally. And judging by the steady rise and fall of his chest, Wally fell asleep too. She pulls herself up to a sitting position, and makes direct eye contact with Dick Grayson.

“Feeling the love, Crock?” he says, his mouth tilted up on one side.

She feels heat rushing to her cheeks. “Shut up, Grayson,” she says. She extracts herself from Wally’s side and stands up. For lack of a better idea, she kicks at Wally’s feet.

“Wally. _Wally!”_ she hisses at him. He jolts awake, looking around him.

“Wha’s up?” he murmurs.

“Let’s get out of here and leave Dick alone,”

“The movie’s over?” he asks, and Artemis groans internally.

“So it would appear,” she says. “I think we might have overstayed our welcome,”

“Please, don’t let me interrupt,” Dick says. “If you two want to resume your cuddlefest, go ahead.”

Artemis makes eye contact with him, and conveys a look that she hopes tells him how many ways she plans to hurt him. He just grins.

-

“So then _I_ said, ‘Darling, if you think I’m going to stop being a lesbian for _that,_ you must be - Are you even paying attention?” Zatanna chastises her from her phone.

Artemis looks up from tying her shoes. “Yes! Sorry. Dick’s just picking me up so we can go to Wally’s track meet in ten minutes so I need to be ready to go when he gets here. Continue, please.”

Zatanna rolls her eyes. “You and your jocks. I don’t know how you keep track of all these sports events you have to go to,”

“I don’t go to all of them, just the big ones. I don’t really know what the deal is _exactly_ with track, but - ”

“You’re saying you don’t know what _exactly_ it is your darling Wally is doing at all times?” Zatanna interrupts.

“Shut up,” Artemis says, with no heat. “This is a big deal for Wally. Me and the guys are all going. Megan and Raquel are going too, they’re getting a ride with Kal and Conner,”

“And you’re going with Dastardly and Harper the younger,” Zatanna says.

“Yeah. I don’t know how you keep track of all of them, you’ve never met them.”

“I’m gifted. I’ll have to come visit soon, so you don’t forget who your real best friend is,” she says.

“As if I could. Now c’mon, I wanna hear how you ruined this poor boy’s life.”

As promised, Dick comes to pick her up not long after that. Roy has shotgun, so she settles in the back. From where she’s sitting, she has an unblocked view of Roy, and marvels, as always, at how similar he and Will look.

“If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to tell West,” Roy says.

“Fuck you, Harper,” she says.

“ _Language,”_ Dick says from the driver’s seat.

They meet Kal and the others at the track, where they’ve claimed nearly an entire row. This isn’t Wally’s only race of the day, but it’s the most important. They’re all buzzing with excitement for Wally, and Kal passes around snacks for all of them.

“Look, there he is!” Megan cries, and sure enough, there’s Wally, jogging on the spot. He must see them, because he gives them a wide and exaggerated wave. Artemis bites her lip on a smile.

A whistle blows somewhere, and Wally and the other competitors get into their positions. Megan hits Artemis’ arm, and she’s almost glad someone else is as invested in this as she is. The air is filled with the sounds of some distant, omniscient voice telling them to be ‘on their marks, get set’ and when he announces it’s time to ‘go!’ Artemis clenches her fists. She knows it’s a several lap race, but she still feels tense when Wally’s not first straight off.

“Come on Wally!” she shouts.

All of them shout encouragement as he races past them, and Artemis finds herself watching in wonder at the power in his legs, the way they can pound steadily at such speed. She clutches Megan’s hand as the Wally pulls into the lead, pushing forward and creating a serious gap between him and his competitors.

When he clears the finish line in first place, Artemis is out of her seat and running down the steps immediately. Wally catches a glimpse of her coming towards him and jogs over, barely weary.

“Wally!” she shouts, hurtling towards him. “That was amazing!”

Before she can even think about it, she’s got her arms thrown around his neck, in all his sweaty glory. He stumbles for a second, but his arms wrap around her quickly.

“Thanks,” he laughs, his breath tickling her ear. His arms are strong, she can’t help but notice, as he almost lifts her off the ground. She pulls back and looks at him and - wow, were his eyes always _this_ green? He’s still out of breath, his face red. His smile is wide, and she is so proud of him.

He opens his mouth, and just as he’s about to-

“West!”

He lets go of her, and she turns to see Roy, Dick and Kal jogging over to them. They’re all smiling too, obviously just as proud of him as she is. When they reach them, Dick looks at Artemis like he knows something she doesn’t which - is usually true.

“You fucking did it, man!” Roy is saying, pulling Wally into one of those bro-hugs that involves a lot of clapping each other on the shoulder. Artemis catches Wally’s eye over Roy’s shoulder, and she flashes him a grin and two thumbs up. He smiles, and she feels something catch in her throat.

-

It’s a miracle she can hold her lunch tray, Artemis muses to herself. Between the archery competition at the weekend and the practice leading up to it, every muscle in her arms and shoulders are crying out to her for help almost constantly. She drags her mind away from the dull pain to find her friends’ table.

“Artemis!” Dick says when she sits down, like he’s announcing her presence, even though everyone can _see her._ “Good job in archery the other day!”

She pauses. “You were there?”

“Oh yeah,” Dick says, with the kind of wink in his eye that Artemis learned not to trust two seconds after meeting him. “Wally made us all go. He didn’t tell you?”

“No,” Artemis says, looking at Wally, who is very focused on shovelling his lunch into his face. “He didn’t.”

“ _Weird.”_ Dick says.

“You were very good, Artemis,” Kal says, clearly stepping up to cut the _bizarreness_ in the air.

“Thanks, Kal,” she says.

“Your form could use some improvement, but other than that, you were almost impressive,” Roy adds.

She cuts him a look. “What do you know about archery?”

“Are you kidding?” Wally says around his food. “Roy made Olympic trials for archery, what, a few years ago?”

“Seriously?” Artemis asks, looking to Roy for confirmation.

“You think I was raised by Ollie and _didn’t_ take up archery?” he says. “I only stopped when I lost my arm.”

“Wow,” Artemis says. Then, she looks at Wally. “I can’t believe you came to my competition and didn’t tell me!”

Wally drops his eyes. “Yeah, well, I didn’t want you to be nervous.”

“Nervous? We always go to your track meets, and Kal’s swim ones. How are my archery competitions any different?

“Yeah, _Wally,_ how are they any different?” Dick asks.

“Shut up, Grayson,” Wally says, with a pleading look that Artemis wishes she could interpret.

“So, Artemis, are you excited for your birthday?” Megan asks her, voice cheerful.

Artemis decides to ignore the totally subtle change of subject. “Yes and no? Turning twenty-one will be awesome, but I never actually do anything for the real day.”

“Nothing?” Megan says. “That’s awful!”

“I’ll say. This year,” Dick says, pointing a finger at her. “We party.”

-

And party they do. Or at least, their version of party. The eleven of them, plus Kal’s new boyfriend, take to playing elaborate drinking games in Dick’s living room, while Dick lets Artemis choose the music.

The game that takes most of Artemis’ attention is one Garth (Kal’s boyfriend) has introduced to them. It comprises of three rounds, and involves taking three cards. Each round they had to hold up one of their cards, and whoever had the lowest card had to drink, and whoever got the highest card got to pick someone else to drink. At the end of the three rounds, the game began again.

It seemed specifically designed to make Artemis’ throat burn.

“Okay, I’m out,” she laughs, leaving the game to just Garth, Conner and Raquel. She plans to go find Megan, but a hand at her shoulder takes her attention.

“Artemis?” Wally says. “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

His face is flushed from all the drinking, and he has his hands shoved in his pockets, the image of a shy southern beau.

“Sure,” she says, and gets up to follow him out to the hallway.

The lighting is more subdued in the hall, the only real light spilling out from the door into the living room. It feels like an entirely different world - quieter, softer.

“I didn’t want to give it to you in front of all the guys, ‘cause I figured they’d make fun of me,” he says, eyes cast to the floor. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small, dainty box. He holds it out to her, and Artemis takes it with both hands. It’s not wrapped, so she just pulls the lid off. Inside is a necklace, with a small amber stone winking up at her.

“I know it’s not much, but I wanted to get you _some_ \- ”

“Thanks, Wally,” she says, forcing herself to look in his eyes. They’re gentle. Warm. “It’s beautiful.”

“Artemis,” he says softly, like the beginning of an admission. But whatever he was going to say is cut off by a clatter and scraping sounds, and his expression entirely changes. “Hey, it sounds like they unearthed the pool table!”

The moment flies away like an untethered cloud, and he heads back to the living room.

-

Zatanna’s voice is coming out of her laptop a few milliseconds after her mouth moves. “And I’m _trying_ to tell Dad that just because he can drive up to NYU to check on me, that doesn’t mean he _should_ ,”

“Yeah, c’mon, Giovanni,” Artemis says. She’s holding her laptop in the air, in a vague attempt to get a better internet connection.

“I’m serious! I’m twenty-one, not eighteen!”

A knock comes at the door.

“Hold on, Zee,” she says, putting her laptop back down at her desk. She pulls the door open and finds Wally in her hallway.

“Hey,” he says, the same way he always does. A greeting, a jumping off point. “Can I talk to you about something?”

“I’m actually kinda busy at the moment,” she says, glancing back at her laptop, where she knows Zatanna is witnessing this entire exchange.

“Oh, alright,” he says, rubbing at the back of his neck. “I’ll talk to you… tomorrow, then?”

“Oh my god, are you wearing that godforsaken tie-dye shirt again?” she asks before he can walk away. Wally looks down, pulling his shirt into his line of vision, like he had forgotten.

“Huh,” he shrugs. “It’s laundry day,”

“No offense, West, but I’m ashamed to know you,”

Wally rolls his eyes. “Babe, please.”

“Ahem,” Zatanna’s voice comes from her laptop.

“Oh shit,” Artemis says. She grabs Wally’s shoulder and drags him into Zatanna’s view. “Zatanna, this is Wally,”

Zatanna pauses, looks him up and down. “Hm.”

Artemis has never known someone who could be so judgemental from a laptop.

“What?” Wally says, looking to Artemis for an explanation.

“Nothing,” Zatanna says. “I just expected you to be more… nevermind.”

“More what?”

“Nothing!” she says again.

“Right,” Wally says. “This is what you’re busy with?”  
“Yeah,” Artemis says. “We have to have regular Skype calls or our entire friendship will collapse at the seams,”

“It will!” Zatanna cries.

Wally chuckles. “Okay, I’ll leave you guys to it.”

“Sorry about that,” Artemis says when he’s gone.

“That’s him?” Zatanna says. “That’s the guy you haven’t shut up about since moving to Stanford?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Jesus, Artemis, you’re basically in love with the guy. I might be gay, but I’m not blind.”

“What - No I’m not! In love with - Wally? Wally? Seriously? How could you think - in love with _Wally?_ ”

“I call it like I see it, babe. You’re always hanging out with him, and if you’re not, you’re talking about it. Not to mention whatever _that_ exchange just was.”

God, Zatanna’s probably right. Somehow, since she came to Stanford, Wally “fashion disaster” West - the guy who use to call himself the Wall-man, the guy who can barely have a serious moment without ruining it, the guy who didn’t even tell her when he came to her archery competition - became the guy of her dreams.

There are things she can’t deny, of course. The steadiness she feels when he’s around. The smile she can’t help when they bicker. The fact that whenever something good happens, she immediately wants to tell him. The instinct she has to look around when she hears something funny, to make sure he heard it too.

“Jesus,” she says. “I like Wally.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, babe,” Zatanna says.

-

She doesn’t remember what made her agree to a movie night with Wally literal _days_ after her confessing to Zatanna that she had a crush on him, but all the same, he shows up at her door brandishing a DVD.

“You ready to have your mind blown?” he says, grin wide.

“Treasure Planet?” she asks skeptically.

“The greatest Disney film of all time,” Wally says, settling in. “It just got fridged because some asshole at Disney decided that 2D animation was a dying medium,”

“Don’t think that’s the correct use of fridge as a verb,” Artemis says absent-mindedly. “But I’ll give it a try.”

Wally grins, because of course he does. Artemis lets him start the movie up, and makes a mental note that she’d have to find an obscure favourite movie of hers to make him watch. Just for justice.

Annoyingly, all throughout the movie, she’s painfully aware of Wally just being _next to her._ She blames Zatanna. She could have gone her whole college career without maybe getting a sort of crush on her high school best friend. But no, apparently she needed someone to come in and make her ‘in-tune’ with her emotions, or something. So instead of focusing on the fucking movie, she feels Wally’s warmth radiating from next to her, and the fact they’re in her bed doesn’t help.

She’ll never admit it to Wally, of course, but _Treasure Planet_ isn’t actually that bad. It’s good, even. She even tears up at the scene where that song by the guy from the Goo Goo Dolls plays and Jim’s dad leaves him. Honestly, when the credits roll, the only problem she has is the fact that Doppler and the Captain have babies that look like mini-clones of them.

She looks over at Wally, about to tell him this, and sees that he’s looking at her. She makes eye contact with him, and doesn’t ask what he was looking at. She finds herself studying his face, the freckles dusted across his nose, the different shades of green in his eyes. She doesn’t look at his lips. She _doesn’t._ But she might look down for a second. Not even a second!

His eyes flicker to her mouth, just for a moment, and she swallows. Her stomach is tight, and she feels the air around her thrumming with - possibility?

He raises his eyebrows at her, a silent question, and she doesn’t know how she responds, but slowly, achingly slowly, he begins to lean forward, and -

“Artemis!” Megan sings, bursting through the door. She and Wally spring apart, and whatever had been buzzing in the air shatters.

“Hey, Megan,” Artemis says, sitting up. “What’s up?”

“Oh, well - Wally!” she says, something Dick Grayson-esque glimmering in her eyes. “Dick said he was trying to get a hold of you. We’re all going to scope out Kal’s new boyfriend without him knowing, so we figured you guys would wanna come. Conner’s meant to be getting you, Wally.”

“My, uh, phone must’ve been on silent,” Wally says.

“Nice one, West,” Artemis says, nudging him with her elbow. She gets off the bed, breaking the final spell on - whatever had been going on. “Let’s go spy on Garth!”

“His name’s Garth?” Wally asks, and Artemis rolls her eyes.

-

“Are we not going to address the _aggressively creepy_ ‘did she put up a fight?’ line?” Barbara says. “Like, sexual assault, much?”

They’re all sprawled in Dick’s living room, the _Grease_ credits rolling on the TV. Artemis is sitting on the floor while Megan absentmindedly braids little sections of her hair. She’s sitting on Conner’s lap while she does it, and Artemis has to give his patience credit. Megan is the antsiest movie-watcher.

“Did any of you guys see that theory online that the end is like, Sandy and Danny going to heaven, or something?” Wally says from his position at the foot of the couch nearest to Artemis.

“As if Grease is that deep,” Dick says.

“It could be!”

“The most important thing is how hot the T-Bird aesthetic is, though,” Barbara says. When Dick looks at her, wounded, she holds her hands up in defence. “I’m just telling the truth!”

“I think I’d make a great T-Bird,” Artemis muses.

“Oh yeah, you’re such a Danny Zuko,” Megan says.

“I can see it,” Kal says.

“Whaddaya think, Wall?” Dick asks. “Would Artemis fit the leather jackets and grease stains vibe?”

Wally cuts him a look.

“If Artemis is Danny, would Wally be Sandy?” Megan wonders.

“Why would I be Sandy?” Wally asks, indignant, and Artemis gets a flashback to their almost-moment in her dorm room just a few days before. She feels her cheeks burning.

“Oh my god, Wally as a naive southern belle?” Roy says. “That I’d pay to see.”

“It kinda works with Sandra Dee as well?” Barbara says.

“Look at me, I am Wal-ly,” Dick sings. “Lousy with virginity! Won’t go to bed ‘til I’m - ow!”

He’s cut off by Wally firing a pillow at his head. “Suck a dick, Grayson,”

“Suck a what?” Dick asks, and Wally just flips him the bird.

-

Other than the one at Dick’s, and the small thing they did for her birthday, Artemis hasn’t really been to a lot of parties this year. Most of her drinking evolves from hanging out in various houses or dorm rooms, but rarely starting at a party level. So when Kal says they’re all invited to a party at some guy from the swim team’s house, she agrees to go.

“I think Logan just has a crush on Megan, but honestly, I’m not turning down booze,” Raquel tells her. Artemis can’t argue with that logic.

The party is well underway by the time they get there, complete with thumping, anonymous music and a crowd of people she doesn’t know. She clings to the girls for a while, chatting to a few girls from Megan’s cheer team. She keeps an eye out for a dartboard, and maybe a redhead.

She’s looking around absentmindedly when she sees the telltale shock of hair coming out of the kitchen. She excuses herself from her conversation and moves through the crowd towards Wally.

“Hey,” she says, and she can feel the smile pulling at her lips without her consent.

“Hey,” he says. He steps closer to the wall behind him, just in time to allow two girls holding hands in the way only girls on a mission do to walk between them. She follows his lead and leans against the wall by him. He gets knocked by someone walking past, and Artemis is very aware of how close they are.

“When did you get here?” he asks her.

“Like half an hour ago? Megan trapped me with the cheerleaders,”

Wally laughs. “Sounds like Megan alright.”

“You’re telling me. They’re nice, but not exactly the crew I want to be spending the whole party with,”

“What, are you planning on kicking Dick’s ass at beer pong?” he says, gesturing with his drink to where Dick stands, heckling some jocks Artemis doesn’t recognise.

“Trust me, I’d much rather be hanging out with you,” she tells him.

Wally ducks his head, looking for all the world like he’s _shy._

“Wall!” Dick calls. “You’re on my team, asshole!”

Wally looks to Artemis, and she just waves him off.

“I’ll talk to you later,” she says, and goes to join Raquel a few feet away.

“Why are guys so obsessed with competing in dumb games?” she says by way of greeting her.

“Girl, you say that like you _aren’t_ the most competitive person on the planet,”

“No, I’m not!” Artemis protests.

“Whatever you say,” Raquel says. Artemis eyes wander over to the beer pong table, where Wally is letting his team down magnificently.

“He’s such a dork,” she mutters.

“Who?” Raquel says. Then, “Oh, Wally. Of course,”

“Of course?” Artemis says. “What’s with everyone and assuming I’m into Wally?”

“Because you are,” Raquel tells her.

In her head, she can hear John Mulaney’s voice calling her out. “Not true!” she says. You know, like a liar. Raquel opens her mouth like she’s about to disagree, but then her expression goes full deer-in-headlights.

“Hey, beautiful,” a voice says from behind her. Raquel mouths ‘sorry’ and slips away immediately, leaving Artemis to deal with Cameron Mahkent. The sleaziest guy she’s met all year.

“Hey, Cameron,” she says.

“How’s it goin’, beautiful?” he asks, and Artemis begins to doubt if he actually knows her name.

“Alright,” she says, already wishing this conversation was over.

“So your friend Megan,” he says, and Artemis rolls her eyes internally. “She’s been with the Man of Muscle for qu-ite a while now, hasn’t she?”

“I guess?” Artemis says.

“Interesting,” Cameron says. “So, can I get you a drink?”

“You know what, I’m actually going to grab my own,” she says. She’s not proud to admit she basically sprints away from him and outside. She’s embraced by the cool air, and she lowers herself onto the patio step.

Her head is a little light from pregaming with Raquel, but she still feels kind of tense. The abilities of the party’s resident creep. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but when she had been talking to Wally earlier - she had felt that glimmer of possibility again, the same one from their almost kiss in her room. She has allowed herself to think of it as an almost kiss, now. But now, here she was, in the garden of some guy she doesn’t know’s house, alone.

-

“Hey,”

She looks up and sees Wally standing by the door. The light from inside shines on half his face, casting shadows on the rest of it, and she can barely see his eyes in the dark. Still, she can identify his soft smile. Immediately, she feels more relaxed.

“Hey,” she says. “Wanna sit down?”

“What’s up?” he asks her as he eases himself onto the step beside her. His knee is only a few centimetres from hers, and she can’t help but think how easily she could move, just for that tiny spot of contact.

“Just avoiding Cameron inside,” she says. “I think we can add him to the list of guys with a weird crush on Megan,”

“But he was hitting on you?”

She looks over at him. “Gee, thanks, Wally,”

“That’s - that’s not what I meant,” he says, rushing to correct himself. “I mean - if he likes Megan, why was he hitting on you?”

Artemis shrugs. “Conner, I guess. She’s taken, might as well go for someone else,”

“Artemis,” Wally says. “You know you deserve better than that, right?”

“I don’t know,” Artemis says, rubbing a hand against her neck. She looks out into the garden. “Sometimes I feel like - I could like someone, and they could like me, and neither of us would - would do anything about it, and I’d stay single forever. Maybe I’m doomed to just never actually be in a relationship with someone who likes me as much as I like them.”

She can hear Wally swallow beside her. She continues. “How many chances can you get before you just accept something’s not gonna happen?”

“I think,” Wally says, his voice thick, almost shaking. “That timing can really screw you over. And maybe - maybe you shouldn’t give up on - on more chances.”

“Timing,” she repeats. Almost laughs. “Yeah, if that’s what you want to call it.”

“Artemis,” Wally says, and she stops talking. She drags her eyes from the garden to look at him. Wally’s eyes lock on hers, and everything around her stills. She can barely hear the buzz from the party, and the gentle blow of the breeze seems to stop. Wally’s eyelashes look really long this close. Artemis’s mouth is dry, and her stomach knots.

What happens next isn’t achingly slow like all the nearly times were. What happens next is full of intent; Wally leaning forward and decisively kissing her. The nerves in Artemis’ stomach melt, and it feels like sunlight is filling her all the way to her toes. Straight away her hand goes to his hair, to hold herself steady, to hold him close. He pulls back for a second and then kisses her again, surer, and Artemis is so close to ruining the moment by smiling. She wraps her hand that isn’t in his hair in his t-shirt, keeping a firm grip on him. All the while she’s thinking, ‘ _I’m kissing Wally West, I’m kissing Wally West,’_ like if she just gets lost in it, she’ll forget.

He pulls back again, and she lets him. He leans his forehead against hers, and here she is again, so close to those green eyes.

“Artemis, I - ”

“Me too,” she says, and when he smiles she reaches over to entwine her fingers with his. She runs her thumb against his, and a thrill runs through her that she can do this, can hold his hand all she likes.

“Guys?” a voice calls from inside - Dick, maybe, and Wally laughs.

“We’ll be in in a second!” he calls, before leaning in and pressing his lips against Artemis’ again.

They take a little longer than a second.

**Author's Note:**

> stanford does not in fact have an archery team, but because this is fiction i say it does. also, i very obviously know nothing about the american college system, and even less about how sports work in that system. i don't care!
> 
> you can find me @clarkeplease on tumblr x


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